Player injury diary: Jamie Hill

The Queensland Rugby League’s player injury diary, presented by TPIL Lawyers, provides greater insight into how our Hostplus Cup athletes return from injury and how they overcome the physical and mental challenges that can come with being sidelined.

In this edition, Sunshine Coast Falcons forward Jamie Hill shares his story about his race against time to return from a ruptured tendon in his groin to potentially play finals this year.

Player injury diary: Jamie Hill

I have a strong belief the Sunshine Coast Falcons can give the Hostplus Cup finals a pretty good shake up.

And I hope I’m there to be part of it.

I’ve been sidelined for six weeks now after rupturing my tendon in my groin in Round 16 against the Wynnum Manly Seagulls.

I was taking a hit up – there wasn’t much in it, no different to any other tackle or hit up. But I felt something pop.

It wasn’t super painful but I just knew something wasn’t right. My movement was pretty limited straight away, so I knew it wasn’t real good.

For the next couple of days, I was in some serious pain. But truth be told, even before the Wynnum Manly game, I knew something was up.

I’d had a few niggles leading into the match. A few ultrasounds showed nothing so I went for an MRI.

Those scans came back after the Wynnum Manly game and it turned out I had been playing with small tears in my groin. I also had a strained lower abdomen that I’d been carrying for a few weeks.

Once those scans came back, I went for another ultrasound and that showed I had ruptured it in the game.

The doctor said it’s normally an eight to 12 week recovery. Pretty quick maths showed me that if I can get back in eight, that will be at the start of finals.

Luckily the boys have been on a pretty good run but I’m also okay with the idea that I may not be back this year at all.

My only regret is not listening to the physios earlier.

They tried to get me to have a rest one of the weeks prior to it rupturing but I kept playing because nothing was confirmed. I thought if there was nothing too serious, I could play through, but I should have taken their advice a bit earlier.

I haven’t done too much recovery just yet since the injury because I’m still pretty tender.

I’ve just started getting back on the bike now and keeping my fitness up as much as I can in case I can come back at the back end of the year but it’s been pretty limited so far.

I try to do my own stuff on the days we’re not training. I’ll try and do a bit of extra physio or a bit of recovery where I can.

Once it’s pain free, I’ll be trying to do some extras on the rower and stuff like that to stay fit and hopefully it doesn’t take too long to get that game fitness and if they do need me at the back end, I’ll be ready to go.

I hate being on the sideline, I hate watching. I’ll always do what I can to try to get back on the field because I’m terrible at watching footy.

If I can get back for finals, that’ll be great.

The belief in the group around what we can achieve, it’s really high. It’s a really tight knit group.